Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1887-10-07
CANES AND cRUTcHgs.
A Dealer Claims That They Are SuppIant-
ing Artificial Limbs.

= merOuS OfCerS Tor legs, with feet al
tached, wondrously combined witt
y cork, wood and steel, with springs tina
y moved as finely as those in watch; il
fact, legs that, with their trousers GOV
erings. were quite as presentable il
: good company as the lost limbs they
| replaced. If any attention was at
! tracted by the somewhat stiff move
Z ments OF their owners. the plying OBJ
servers would say: Poor fellow, he
J has touch Of the rheumatism. / can
: sympathize with him; / am troubled
: with it myself occasionally
Nobody then ever said to a friend
who asked him to take a walk: You
must pardon me, but have only one
leg lie made some different excuse;
illness in his family; indisposition; any
thing but inability. Bnt how is it now?
Why, fellow who. half dozen years
ago, poked his leg into sewer when
he was staggering 10 his home little
before dawn, and fractured it so badly
that no repairs were possible. leans
back in his chair and. resting dirty
stick upon the table, while he quietly
smokes big cigar, says to the com
panN There, gentlemen. is what
Shiloh left me. I'm an old soldier
and. hang me, I'm proud of it.'''
| II believe the manufacturers OF
canes are responsible for the decrease
in the sale of artisticaily made crutches.
You see man with strong stick in
his hand can manage to hobble along
tolcrably well even though ae has
| only one lower limb to support him,
and il he has in addition plain, old
fashioned woodcn-leg. not undermined
by drink, as one of Dickens characters
says they sometimes become, he can
walk about well enough To finish all
the business that one-lcgged man is
ever likely To be called upon 10 do. OF
course men kne. this long ago, but ii
| is only lately that they have taken it
| into their stupid heads 10 imagine that
one leg is better than two, II the lie
with which they account for the loss Of
| the missing one is only sufficiently
skillfully constructed to be credited.
at Is for this reason that | have
taken TO selling walking sticks and
canes False legs won't support me
any longer. Sir Walter Scott said:
Literature Is a good walking stick, but
bad crutch. Ii was a very good
crutch for him. however, but apart
from that little Inconsistency he did
not weigh his words. A w,tiking-stiek
is crutch, more's the pity and cheap
one, too.
"Ihen, there are a great number Of
4
men who carry their love for elegant
canes into the regions of foppery, where
ms the best false leg that was ever made
was only intended to conceal its dent-
ity. and could not be worn more grace
fully by flop than by pensioned
| miner. Canes with silver tops with
which the market has been glutted for
the past two years, silver being chcapD
sticks SO light that if the fingers grasp
ing them opened they would be apt 70
fly up instead of falling down; sticks SO
heavy that they seriously handicap
| their owners in u long walk, and would
| disappoint both hound and hunter by
sinking If one of them were thrown
into pond for water-dog TO replevy;
canes with the head of tho missing
link on the handles. and canes with
out any handles at all. They combine
to knock the false leg from under the
| men who tell the same story, whether
they left IA limb on the battlefield of
Gettysburg or in the vicinity of Penn
| sylvania eoal-mine."
''lronwood aud Rgnum ritg make the
favorite canes for heavy men; bamboo
and malacca sticks aro more in vogue
among light ones, The redwood of
British Columbia has recently come
into the market, and makes about as
heavy stick IA any wood known. 1t
has rich port-wine color. and is very
handsome. In the event of an arp,I-
ment. II would strike home when logic
failed. Tor IL is as consincingly weighty
AS bar OF iron, and has great advan-
tngo over a sword or pistol. inasmuch
as IT never misses fire. and its p2sscasor
can't cut or pierce himself by falling
upon 1t in an unguarded moment.
Another objection 10 the artificial
leg is that man walking with one
through the snow feels the cold in his
toes, although he has no toes 10 feel it
in. III Is very queer, but it is an abso-
lutte fact. The sensation of chill re-
mains. even when three feet of iron.
wood. cork or steel spans the space be-
tween the cold earth and the sensitive
point Whether man wears "A we'll
made artificial leg or an old-time wooden
peg. tits very necessary that the lower
extremity Of the false limb should be
well sh.d. cane used in conjunction
with common stick leg eases tho
pressure ON the ground, and may have
some advantages over the scientifically
made limb, but it decreases our profits
enormously.
81 once sold to a sportsman leg
that was simply gun barrel, with a
cork in the bore. lie loadll il before
he went out for walk. and il he came
across ilock of birds he lust pulled
out the stopper. leveled his limb and
fired ut them. 49, san Francisco Call
Pleasant Feature.